Rick Warren's Conference in Pusan, Friday, July 14th

Drove to Pusan with Seung-Hoon to hear Rick Warren speak at SuYoungRo Church. Well, actually, we went to SEE Rick Warren but the 2nd floor main sanctuary where he was speaking (which holds over 15,000!) was jam packed 30 minutes before he was to speak. Therefore, we had to make due with seeing him on a big screen viewing sanctuary on the 1st floor. The message was such a blessing that neither of us regretted going.
This is basically what he spoke about:
There are 2 main themes of the Bible:
1) SALVATION-God's love for us revealed on the cross! Our main purpose in life is to know God and love God and to share the message and fact of this love with others.
When we wake each morning, we should kneel down by our beds and ask God to help us know Him a little better and to love Him a little better. If we do come to know God a little more and love Him a little more that day, then the day has been a success no matter what else has happened. If we have not come to know God a little more or loved Him a little more, than the whole day has been a failure, no matter what has happened.
2) STEWARDSHIP
Rick believes that God will ask us 2 main questions when we see Him:
1) What did you do with my son? (Hopefully you will have accepted Him as Lord in your life!)
& 2) What did you do with what you were given? (stewardship)
"Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-why the bush does not burn up." When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." (Exodus 3:1-4)
"Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, "The LORD did not appear to you"?" Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the LORD said to him,"Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand." (Exodus 4:1-4)
God asks a very important question: WHAT IS IN YOUR HAND?
This is still an important question for every Christian under the sun. What is in YOUR hand? Now, of course God already knows the answer when asking a question. He does it so that the person listening can consider and understand for themselves.
"Pick it up" - God took a dead piece of wood and transformed it into a living creature.
Whatever you lay down at the foot of Christ will come alive. Whatever you pick up and take back will die.
Mose's staff represents 3 things:
1) identity - Because he was a shepherd. That was his career.
2) income - Symbolic of his wealth as his income was tied up in his sheep.
3) influence - What did he use the staff for? Moving sheep. Pulling them with the hook on one end and pushing them with the other end.
Lay it down and I'll make it come alive. Never again is the staff referred to as "Mose's staff" but instead as "the rod of the LORD"! What is in your hand? For someone in the NBA, a basketball-it represents their identity, income and influence.
What talents and gifts has God given you? friendships, freedoms, health, family, education, business....
Unfortunately for most of us, the more we are blessed, the easier it is for us to forget God. We look at what's in our hand instead of up to God who provides everything. When we're poor we look to God because there is nothing else.
WE ARE BLESSED SO THAT WE MIGHT BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS!
""Do not remember the past. I want to do a new thing", says the LORD." (Isaiah 43:18-19)
God is a God of newness. There have been 2 great movements or revivals of God in Korea. He wants to raise the church up for another great revival here.
God loves to use small things because then He gets all the credit. For example, He used the small nation of Israel to bring us the 10 Commandments, the Bible and the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. God did not choose Israel because it is great.
God calls us to worship, fellowship with other believers, grow in Christ, serve in ministry and to share the good news with others. When we fulfill God's purposes in our lives, He blesses us. Every church should be planting new churches. One physical ability of humans is to reproduce. The same is true for spiritual maturity-having "spiritual babies" in growth.
1 church is not enough. 1 Christian is not enough. 1 denomination is not enough. Alone we cannot do much. A great movement of God requires cooperation.
There are only 1,500 churches in Pusan. Even if each church reached 10,000 people, it wouldn't be reaching everyone.
If you love Jesus, we're on the same team.
Rick's illustration:
Scream out the name of your church.
(At this point, everyone screamed out the name of their church which was of course just a lot of noise.)
You see. You can't make out what is being said.
Now, scream out the name of your Savior.
(At this point, everyone screamed out in ONE voice, "Yaesu-nim!" ("JESUS" in Korean))
Aha. You can clearly make out what you're all saying now.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
It starts with "your Jerusalem"; your hometown. You may share the truth with your family and friends. Judea-What is "your Judea"? All the area around your own city within an hour or so. Samaria-People who are culturally different from you in your city. Samarians were not true Jewish people as they were different slightly in language and ethnic background. Who is different from you that you can reach out to? Ends of the earth-At that time, it was physically impossible. We are the 1st generation which can FULLY fulfill that verse! They didn't have airplanes, trains or the internet at that time. Will we be the generation to take the gospel to the whole world?! There is nothing God longs for more than for His lost children to be found. Be a part of it! Will you watch history from the sidelines or join God in making history?!
The 1st step of revival is purifying your heart-Confession
God uses all kinds of vessels, even broken vessels, but not a dirty vessel.
We have the promise of 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Confessing simply means "agreeing with God" that He is right and that whatever we have done wrong is wrong. Don't try bargaining with God. Don't blame others for sinning. Just confess.
We must have a willingness to get right with God.
Revival begins with prayer!
Those are the notes I took but Rick said so much more. It was a REAL pleasure to hear him talk. I have read up a lot on him (especially about his traveling to North Korea this week) and noticed a lot of criticism of Rick Warren and his so-called "liberal thoughts" but I must say that I was greatly pleased to hear his message today and I did not hear anything that sounded like "commercializing Christian" or anything else that might have been taken as "unbiblical". I really wish I could have met Rick afterwards and thanked him personally for his obedience to God. I also wanted to briefly share with him how my father came to accept Christ in a large part due to his book and that I am eternally grateful to him as a brother in Christ.
I thought it was so awesome to see Joseph Kim (son of Billy Kim) on the stage translating for Rick. (Joseph spoke at our last faculty retreat. Check it out at http://andyinkorea.blogspot.com/2006/02/joseph-kim-and-young-gil-kim.html )
By the way, if you haven't read "Purpose Driven Life" yet, give it a read! You won't be disappointed!